Altamonte Teen Dies In Police Custody

September 1, 1991|By Mike Oliver Of The Sentinel Staff

A 17-year-old Altamonte Springs youth went into convulsions and died early Saturday, about six hours after his arrest by Winter Park police.

Police say they suspect Michael Jerome Graham, 402 Magnolia St., might have eaten cocaine to hide it and then died of a drug overdose. A preliminary toxicology report at the hospital detected cocaine in Graham's body, but a medical examiner will not have a conclusion on the cause of death for several weeks, said Winter Park police spokesman Rick Nuss.

Family members and friends, however, dispute the police version of the story, pointing to cuts the teen-ager suffered while in a cell at the Winter Park police station.

Police said the injuries were caused by a fall, but ''I believe they took him in the cell and beat him,'' said Delores Wiggins, Graham's 34-year-old sister. ''If he had swallowed some rock cocaine why didn't they pump his stomach?''

Nuss said officers didn't suspect at the time of the arrest that Graham had swallowed cocaine. He dismissed charges of brutality and gave this account:

Police arrested Graham after being called to the scene of suspected drug sales at 5:48 p.m. at Pennsylvania and Garfield avenues.

Graham was one of two suspects who fled when officers arrived. After a short chase, Graham was arrested, but the other suspect got away.

No drugs were found on Graham, who was charged with resisting arrest without violence - a typical charge when someone flees officers. Investigators looking into Graham's death Saturday have talked to three witnesses who said they saw Graham put something in his mouth before police arrested him, Nuss said.

While Graham was in a cell at the police station, an officer went to check on him and found the teen-ager bleeding from the back of his head and his lip, Nuss said. Graham told the officer he had fallen and hit his head, Nuss said.

Graham also told emergency room staff at Florida Hospital Orlando that he had fallen, said Barbara Grossman, hospital spokeswoman. While medical workers prepared to stitch his lip, Graham went into convulsions. He died shortly after midnight while being treated for the convulsions, Grossman said.

Nuss said Winter Park police are looking for the person who supplied cocaine to Graham and are prepared to charge that person with murder.

Graham had a previous cocaine conviction, Nuss said.

Winter Park police have called on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as an outside agency to investigate the death.

Wiggins acknowledged her brother's previous cocaine conviction, but said he was never a cocaine user and that the police account of her brother's night in the cell is full of holes.

''His lip was busted and there were cuts on the top of his head,'' Wiggins said. At the hospital, ''he told my father police had beaten him.''